In private homes, ready-to-eat breakfast cereal is generally either stored in the box in which it was purchased or transferred to a sealed receptacle for storage. The consumer then transfers the desired amount of cereal to his serving bowl by pouring or scooping.
Hotels, restaurants, residential institutions and other establishments in which breakfast buffets are available frequently present breakfast cereals in large bowls to which, the consumer may help himself using a scoop. There are many disadvantages associated with these storage and dispensing arrangements.
Firstly, spillage frequently occurs during transfer of the cereal from the storage bowl to the consumer's bowl, causing wastage and mess.
Secondly, freshness is not preserved. If cereal is stored in its original box, air may enter the box and cereal at the bottom of the box may become stale before consumption. In the case of the storage bowl or receptacle, no continual flow of fresh product is maintained, since the bowl or receptacle may be repeatedly refilled from above, resulting in stale cereal remaining at the bottom.
Thirdly, these methods are not hygienic, since the food is exposed to contamination by dust, insect matter and other airborne particles. Such contamination may occur even if the box is closed or a cover is provided, since each consumer must remove the cover prior to helping himself to cereal. Furthermore, the cereal may inadvertently be touched by the consumer during the scooping process.
Fourthly, crushing of the cereal frequently occurs during scooping, resulting in product wastage.
Various solid food devices comprising an enclosed receptacle with an attached dispensing mechanism have been developed to alleviate the problems associated with unsanitary storage and dispensing methods.
However, the majority of conventional dispensers are extremely hard to dissasemble and clean efficiently, since they often contain a multitude of minute components in various three-dimensional planes, which cannot be easily removed or cleaned. This results in a non-hygienic food dispensing system, or requires considerable time and effort to be regularly invested in cleaning the system. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 2,920,796 to Field describes a dispenser having a multitude of parts. Such systems having a large number of specialized components are expensive to manufacture and difficult to assemble. The need exists for a simple dispensing system which, having a limited number of components, is inexpensive to manufacture and is easy to use and to wash.
Another fundamental disadvantage of conventional systems lies in their failure to provide sealing of the product in the storage section of the dispenser, therefore a food product stored for several days tends to become stale.
Furthermore, most of the known bulk food dispensers cause considerable breakage and crushing of fragile foods such as breakfast cereals. Dispensers which have been described as being suitable for breakfast cereals have a tendency to become jammed. Prior art dispensers are additionally limited since they often do not have a portion control mechanism. In such dispensers, when the dispensing aperture is opened, product will continuously be dispensed, in an unmeasured manner, so that during dispensing the product tends to overflow and spill out of the bowl.
A great need exists for a dispensing system that allows sanitary dispensing of pet food, which is often sold in hefty-sized bags, into which a pet owner often will insert a bowl to remove a portion for use, in a repetitive, and potentially unsanitary manner. The pet food within a large-sized bag is open to the air, so that it will rapidly become stale and air-borne micro-organisms may easily enter. Additionally, when pet food is stored within a large-sized bag, the malodor of the pet food tends to disperse within the room.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a closed, hygienic dispensing system for granular products which does not cause breakage of fragile product, which provides freshness-sealing of the product within a storage area prior to dispensing, and which is simple to use and maintain.